1. Field
The present disclosure relates to a sheet pickup apparatus of an image forming apparatus. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a sheet pickup apparatus having a small impact noise when picking up a print medium and an image forming apparatus having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image forming apparatuses, such as laser printers, copiers, multifunctional products, facsimile machines, etc. are widely used. Such an image forming apparatus may store a plurality of print media, and performs a job such as printing and copying by picking up the print media, for example, one by one.
For example, when printing, the image forming apparatus may be required to pick up a sheet of print media loaded in a paper cassette, and to move the picked print medium to an image forming unit. For this action, swing type sheet pickup apparatuses may be used.
However, conventional swing type sheet pickup apparatuses are configured so that a pickup roller is not in contact with, but spaced apart from, the print medium before printing, and is brought into contact with the print medium when performing a pickup operation. As the printing starts, the pickup roller rotates and swings by a predetermined distance based on a predetermined point so as to come into contact with the print medium. When the pickup roller moves and is brought into contact with the print medium, the swing motion of the pickup roller is stopped, and impact noise may be generated by kinetic energy of the pickup roller.
To reduce the impact noise, a decrease in a swing speed of the pickup roller and a reduction in a swing motion distance of the pickup roller may be considered.
However, a decrease in a swing speed of the pickup roller slows a speed in which the pickup roller picks up and conveys a print medium, and not suitable for image forming apparatuses that require high speed.
In addition, because a reduction in the swing motion distance of the pickup roller requires a stack height of the print media to be constant, an additional device capable of changing the stack height of the print media is required.
Accordingly, a need to develop a sheet pickup apparatus that can decrease noise without reducing the swing speed or the swing distance is desired.